Today I need to show you a trashy and easy way to make raised garden beds using cardboard . This raised bed tutorial is a no dig gardening method which anyone can do and I will take you through how I used material I had lying around to make it .
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To build these well-to-do , frugal garden bed , we ’re going to sheet mulch . This means we ’re suppressing weeds by layering material which can be broken down to bring on nutrient robust grunge .
Cardboard is a bully compostable spiritualist that will repress sens allowing you to place a raised bed in good order on top of pasturage or weeds . The weeds underneath the composition board will rot down and allow for growing plant life with nutrients .
Collect mint of composition board boxes to make the bed and attempt to stave off box that are heavily print with dark inks as these will end up in the filth and often hold in heavy metals such as lead or cadmium because they ’re colorfast . ( If you ’re concerned in that sort of matter or are a chemist like me , theRoyal Society of Chemistryhas a great article on Ink Chemistry which they ran in their magazine long time ago when I was a bookman ) .
It is better to have enough boxes to flatten out and overlap to subjugate the likelihood of weed pushing through .
Flatten the boxes and withdraw all plastic packing tape ; as the composition board breaks down , the magnetic tape will be leave bat across the garden or the street which is unpleasant .
I added folio and dead twigs and prunings to this as a bulking factor and to provide more nutrients as they get around down over the course of the acquire season . you could habituate pale yellow , partially decomposed compost , punky wood and shredded paper as well .
The bulking material is n’t necessary you’re able to cut it , I just had a crew of juiceless leaves that require to be put to use . The added benefit of add makeweight or bulking agents in a raised bed is that they can help retain more moisture in the bed ; raised beds are often prone to dry out .
The bulking material can also help level out an uneven ground for the plants which will go on top , this exceptional bit of garden is slope so it helped to tear down the new bed with the old .
Wetting the material serves two purposes ; one it slim down things blowing off because it is heavier and two , it speed up up decay .
You require to soundly hit it up the cardboard and bulking agents you have add on top .
I added manure at this pointedness because I ’m lucky enough to know the great unwashed with horse so I can get complimentary manure whenever I postulate it and it chance to be in a mint waiting to be used . If you do n’t happen to have a manure pile lying around , try require about to see if you could take some . I have found many people here willing to rent me take it for gratis because it costs them so much to toss of it . Manure will help provide the nitrogen to help break off down the composition board .
You do n’t need to use animal manure , if you read theWeblink Wednesdayposts you would have seen that there is information now exhibit that antibiotic exercise in animals is adversely affecting the ground microbiome . If you do n’t have or need to use manure , I would recommend compost , passel and lots of compost .
Once you have piled up the material , you demand to dismantle it out and cover the cardboard .
Once it is level , you could add compost or a sowing mix if you contrive on sow seeds directly to give them the well kickstart .
I like to add certain soil amendments to the raised bed I ’m creating namely dry kelp ( figure above ) or seaweed and rockdust to help remineralize the soil and to provide the plants with additional nutrients as they grow . you could also add thing like guano , insect cast , biochar or chicken manure pellets if you are concerned about the cardboard or bulking agentive role robbing the compost of nitrogen for the plants to use .
Once you have leveled off the compost and graze in any grunge amendment , you could edge the bed to make it look pretty using bricks , stone , bottles , wood or decorative edging .
I opted to leave behind the bottom unedged for the here and now whilst I keep on to extend the vegetable garden across the side thousand .
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